The world of wrestling seems like it just can’t let go of the idea of running a football league. After launching the XFL 2.0 at the worst possible time, right after the Super Bowl in 2020, the league folded for a second time before being acquired by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Little news has been released since that announcement in August 2020, but it appears that work is taking place behind the scenes, gearing up the XFL for version 3.0.
But will it be the same story, or will it be third time lucky for the XFL now it’s under new management?
The Up-Hill Struggle
America loves football. The National Football League is the biggest professional sporting competition in the country, but colleges still play a huge role in developing new talent. To give you some perspective of how big collegiate-level football is in the US, the 10 biggest dedicated football stadiums in the country are all used for college games.
There are also eight that have a seating capacity of over 100,000 people. In contrast, no English Premier League soccer club has room for that many spectators. In fact, almost no stadiums in the whole of Europe have a capacity that comes close to that. Barcelona’s Camp Nou can seat over 99,000, while London’s Wembley Stadium tops out at around 90,000.
With so many people in love with football in the US, you’d expect that most Americans would adopt a “the more the merrier” approach. However, this isn’t the case. The American Football League has had the best chance of rivalling the NFL, but the two eventually merged to save costs.
Other attempts at creating new football leagues have mostly ended in failure. The USFL, which ran between 1982 and 1986, eventually collapsed.
So when wrestling legend and WWE owner Vince McMahon announced in early 2000 that he would be launching a new football league, many were incredibly surprised and quite skeptical.
With a background in wrestling, many were unsure as to whether the outcomes of XFL games would be scripted. This concern was put to bed pretty quickly though as Las Vegas sportsbooks began taking bets on the league’s first games. In 2020, with US sports betting possible in many more states, football fans scrambled to use the generous promo codes from brands like PointsBet ahead of the first XFL game.
Many purists were also skeptical of the additional showmanship introduced by McMahon, such as doing away with the traditional coin toss and replacing it with a one-on-one tussle for the ball.
However, some of the innovations pioneered by the league did eventually make their way into the NFL, including additional camera angles and microphones affixed to the players.
McMahon learned a lot from the demise of XFL 1.0 and it looked as though the reincarnation of the league would be a success. Fate would intervene, however, and the second attempt was cut short and eventually ran out of cash.
Resurrection
After collapsing for a second time, the wrestling world seemed unable to give up on the XFL. In May 2020, McMahon was reportedly still trying to fight for the league and bring it back for a third time, though his efforts were somewhat futile.
That still wasn’t the end though. Former WWE wrestler and now actor and businessman, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, acquired the XFL in August 2021. He wasn’t alone though, his business partner and ex-wife Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital are believed to also be involved in the purchase.
Together, the trio are said to have spent $15 million in acquiring what was left of the XFL after it entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2020.
Johnson has a passion for football. After winning the 1991 National Championship while at the University of Miami before entering the 1995 NFL Draft. However, after not getting picked, he signed with the Canadian Football League team, the Calgary Stampeders. After a lacklustre first season, he decided to switch to wrestling.
It’s clear, with this move, that Johnson still has a great deal of love for the sport.
The XFL’s President, Jeffrey Pollack, commented on the deal, saying that he “could not imagine a better outcome for the XFL” adding that under its new owners the league will have an “exciting journey ahead2.
The Relaunch
It had been suggested that the XFL would begin in 2022, but in a one-minute video posted to the league’s official YouTube account in July 2021 now suggest it will be another year before fans get to see any action.
This gives the newly-reformed XFL time to undertake the necessary preparations to ensure the third time is the charm. One of the factors that led to the demise of the first version of the XFL back in 2001 was that McMahon and his team had had less than 12 months from the announcement to the launch to get it going.
One of the most important tasks facing Johnson, Garcia, and RedBird Capital is that they need to sign a media partner. This will be a significant portion of the XFL’s revenue, and the investors are keen to get this sorted before ploughing any more of their own cash into it.
2022 was still the target date at the beginning of this year, but that has now been pushed back, likely due to the difficulty in finding this all-important media partner.
This is because there’s still a lot to do. It needs to sign players, decide on new rules, agree leases on stadiums, put together a schedule, and begin an extensive marketing campaign. That took McMahon two years ahead of XFL 2.0, so 2023 is much more realistic as a target.
Will it Happen?
There’s still no guarantee that the third iteration of the XFL will go ahead, despite the promises made by the league and its owners. If they’re unable to find a media partner, then the project is dead before it’s even got off the ground.
Even if they can overcome that, they still have much more work to do. Launching the league is, arguably, the easy part. The difficult task comes when trying to sustain it over the long run, keeping fans interested, and differentiating it from the corporate giant that is the NHL.
